Can the new Motown recapture the old magic?

The Temptations

March 26, 1998
Web posted at: 4:15 p.m. EST (2115 GMT)

By Larry Katz

Motown is a label with a past -- 40 years' worth.

But does it have a future?

That's the question haunting the fabled record company as it celebrates its 40th anniversary with a year of hoopla.

Motown kicked off its extended anniversary party with a well received half-time show at Super Bowl XXXII that inevitably centered on Motown's '60s heyday. A two-part documentary, "Motown 40: The Music Is Forever," aired on ABC-TV in February in conjunction with the release of a two-CD hits collection, "Motown 40 Forever." Other projects include the summer release of a 15th-anniversary edition of "The Big Chill" soundtrack and an NBC-TV miniseries on the Temptations in November.

Undoubtedly, the music from Motown's glory years has stood the test of time. And undoubtedly the songs Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Four Tops, the Temptations, the Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and Stevie Wonder made famous will continue to endure for at least another 40 years -- or until the last member of "The Big Chill" generation is laid to rest.

But no one is betting on the longevity of Motown's current efforts. After suffering creative, financial and managerial problems through the '90s, Motown today is a struggling, New York-based division of a giant international corporation. It is a much different place from the one Berry Gordy Jr. started in Detroit in a small house he optimistically dubbed Hitsville U.S.A.

Georgia Ward, who joined the Motown staff as a secretary in 1966, is the only current employee left from those Detroit days. She's still based in Los Angeles, and her official duties involve preparing rare and unreleased material from the Motown archives for release. Unofficially, she is a repository of Motown memories.

Diana Ross

"I'm the link between the past and future," the 60-year-old Ward says. "Basically, the whole company is new, totally new. Stevie Wonder is still here. And Otis Williams of the Temptations. And Diana Ross." She laughs. "But we're in different categories."

Ward recalls the early Motown as far from corporate.

"I was in the office on the second floor," she says, "and the recording studio was right below us on the first floor. It was just a house, not a soundproof building. When they'd start a session, you'd type to the beat of the music. It was a fun time. Everybody was free to roam. There were all these creative people hanging out. Everybody was friendly, down-to-earth. We were treated like one big happy family."

That changed when Gordy, eager to expand into movies, moved Motown to L.A. in 1972. "The family feeling was lost," Ward says. "It became a big conglomerate. We were in a structured office environment. It had an (entirely different) feel. In Los Angeles we were just another record company. That was the start of the decline."

The family feeling was altogether lost in 1988 when Gordy sold Motown to MCA and Boston Ventures for $61 million.

"There were only 10 of us left from before," Ward says. "We were used to doing things one way, (the new administration) did them another way. Then Polygram came in and I was the only one left from before."

Looking to capitalize on Motown's catalog and brand name, Polygram bought Motown for $301 million in 1993. In 1995, hip-hop entrepreneur Andre Harrell, whose Uptown Records had made millions with Heavy D., Al B. Sure and Mary J. Blige, was given a five-year, $35 million contract to run Motown.

Stevie Wonder

Harrell's reign was disastrous. He launched an expensive promotional campaign with himself as poster boy, and it backfired amid accusations of ego run rampant. He quickly alienated two of Motown's remaining stars, Diana Ross and Queen Latifah. Worst of all, he went hitless. When Harrell was dismissed last year, Motown was a company in disarray.

Last November, Harlem-born, Harvard-educated film producer George Jackson ("Krush Groove," "New Jack City") was hired as Motown's new president. On January 29, Polygram made Motown the urban music division of Mercury Records, switching artists such as Tony! Toni! Tone!, Brian McKnight and Will Downing to Motown.

But corporate support does not ensure Motown's success.

"There's tremendous pressure on me," Jackson, 38, acknowledges, "nothing but pressure. But you know what? There was pressure on Berry Gordy when he borrowed $800 from his family to start Motown. Pressure can cripple you or it can inspire you. I choose the latter."

Is it possible to recapture Motown's glory operating within the structure of a giant corporation?

"Reinvigorating that pride and those standards is the challenge," Jackson says. "There's a special alchemy about Motown. Even in its downtrodden state, there's Boyz II Men setting a standard for male R&B groups. We have to set a standard in everything we do."

Boyz II Men

Jackson is a novice in the music business, but he realizes the key to Motown's revival is simple: Make great records.

"We need to be about good music created by the best songwriters and producers," he says. "Then we need to market it to get above the noise. Because right now you've got a bunch of records being churned out, and the overwhelming majority are mediocre. We've got to get above the noise. Then Motown can serve as a source of inspiration for the people who work here now, for the artists we are going to sign and for all the people who still love what Motown represents.

Part of his plan is to go back to Motown's roots, literally.

"We've set up a satellite office in Detroit that's being run by one of our great young producer-artists, Michael Bivens, a member of New Edition. And we have a new artist, Debelah Morgan, with a spectacular album that includes a remake of 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough.' It's magical that our first new artist is from Detroit."

Jackson can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk? His most veteran employee is cautiously optimistic.

"Every president that has come in has promised to take Motown back to where it was," Georgia Ward says. "But, of course, you can't recapture that full impact of the '60s. Still, there are things that can be done to remind people what Motown was all about. It's sad to say that people are not sure who's on the label these days. We can change that. If it's planned right, we can bring Motown back at least a little bit."

(c) 1998, Larry Katz. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate

Related sites:

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• Welcome to Motown
• Motown at 40 - presented by the Detroit Free Press

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